Astronaut Wang Yaping became the first Chinese woman to walk in space, authorities said on Monday, as her team completed a six-hour stint outside the Tiangong space station as part of its ongoing construction.

Tiangong – meaning “heavenly palace” – is the latest achievement in China’s drive to become a major space power, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon.

Its core module entered orbit earlier this year, with the station expected to be operational by 2022. Wang and her colleague Zhai Zhigang stepped out of the module on Sunday night – waving to the camera while tethered to the outside of the station – and installed a suspension device and transfer connectors.

The third member of the crew, Ye Guangfu, assisted from inside the station, China Manned Space (CMS) agency said.

“This marks the first extravehicular activity of the Shenzhou-13 crew, and it is also the first in China’s space history involving the participation of a woman astronaut,” said CMS.

“The whole process was smooth and successful,” the agency added.

Tiangong is expected to operate for at least 10 years, and the three astronauts are the second group to stay there. Wang is the first woman to visit.

Sunday’s operation came just weeks after Wang, Zhai and third team member Ye Guangfu blasted off from the Jiuquan launch centre in northwestern China’s Gobi desert. The team is expected to spend six months at the station.

Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space in 1984. Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to do so later the same year.